Anyone Have A Double-decker?

[floridanative]

Good luck to the both of you.  I am glad that you are in good company.

Let us know how you are doing.  Lisa B.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks Lisa. I am finally alert enough to get online. I had an absolutely non-memorable event this am. I was very scared right before they put me under but I went down like a light and was back up 25 minutes later. I do however remember talking to the doc after and he was ignoring me and talking to my husband. Anyway, the good news is I don't have colon cancer or any polyps. All they found was that I do have divertulosis (not it's sister condition diverticulitus) and I just have to increase fiber in order to control it.

But my insurance would not cover them doing the biopsy today so I am pretty bummed. They are to call me in the next couple of days to scdedule that. The doc told hubby that I may have something called Celiac Sprue and then acted surprised when we told him we'd already been to a gluten-free food seminar since he mentioned this was a possibility after seeing some minor blood work results. Here is my question for you experts on this forum. Should I ask for a full Celiac blood panel first? I know for sure this has not been done yet. But I also know the blood work will not show me any proof of Celiac and the doc thinks we already have evidence that I could have it since I can't absorb iron and folic acid correctly. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Stephanie- I just saw you post. I was worried that you hadn't checked in. Good luck with your results and keep up posted on your other tests. I am making a list of all the things with gluten in them that I want to have one last time if a gluten-free life is my fate. I know I have to be thankful that nothing really bad is going on but I think this is going to be very hard for me.

Tiffany M.

p.s. Lisa - I'm glad we kept you entertained. I decied to keep it clean and not share my prep night experiece but let's just say is indeed the WORST part of the test.

[skbird]

Yeah, Lisa, I'm glad this was an entertaining read. I was worried we were dragging it out, but it was kind of fun, two of us doing the same thing the same day.

Well, we both survived, Tiffany! I am still going up and down on the blood sugar scale. Well, mostly down. I wonder about the insulin response to IV sugar, also. I checked every hour after I got home, was 225 according to the doc, 177 on my first test, then 131, 107, 94, then took a nap for an hour and was 63. I haven't been this unstable in a long time - I'm pretty sure it's the fast plus the shocker of getting IV sugar. I don't even eat regular sugar so who knows.

I don't think I could have diabetes because I don't think my insulin would kick in like that and overcompensate, taking me down too far. But maybe there's something I don't know about diabetes?

Have to say I have a slight sore throat now, and some minor aches and pains in my stomach/abdomen area but that's about it. And I'm surprised I'm not hungrier.

Anyway, have a good weekend, all (I'll be out of town the next three days) - see you Monday!

Stephanie

[psawyer]

Stephanie,

The pancreas responds to glcuose in the blood, regardless of how it got there. 225 is high, but stress can temporarily cause a spike in blood glucose levels. The "double decker" exam would produce some stress, possibly enough, when combined with the IV glucose, to produce such a high level. Ask the doctor to test, (or, if you can, test yourself) first thing in the morning before breakfast (fasting). Fasting blood sugar is another good indicator.

Peter

Type 1 diabetic for two decades, and also celiac (for how long? five years since diagnosis).

[floridanative]

Stephanie - thanks for going through this with me. It made it much easier knowing I wasn't the only one dealing with it. Have a great long weekend and take care!

Tiffany M.

[skbird]

Peter - thanks for the info. I have tested myself off and on for the past two or three years now and not really seen anything higher than 135. Usually I am under 100 but I usually eat a low glycemic diet. Once I got the hang of how I feel when I'm going down and got pretty stabilized, I stopped testing very much, probably only once a month. Since gluten free I have been really stable though I eat a lot more refined carbs. When I do test nowadays I notice I am usually around 100 fasting. I tested a lot this weekend and it was interesting, to say the least. I found that my fasting seemed to be over 90 all three days but that my sugar kept dropping into the low 60's throughout the day and I just had almost no appetites. Also very cranky and frustrated. I did find this on the web that seems to describe what happened, or might be what's really going on with me in this respect, as I generally don't eat the way normal people do, so that might be the reason I don't see big swings.

Insulin Resistance

So, when a hypoglycemic subject drinks a Cola, the blood sugar level rises. As a result, the pancreas starts to produce large amounts of insulin. However, the cells don't react to the insulin. Somehow the lock on the glucose-door has been changed and the insulin-key won't fit. After some time (depends on how bad the insulin resistance is, ie 10 minutes or 4 hours) the cells start to react and the blood sugar levels start to drop. However, when the normal blood sugar levels are reached, there is still very much insulin in the blood. The bloodsugar levels keep dropping. A life-threatening condition is created. The brains and vital organs need a minimum ammount of glucose to function properly. The subject is in danger of falling into a coma.

Emergency Situation: Low blood sugar

The body reacts very swiftly, just before it's too late. It does this by releasing many hormones in the blood. These hormones signal the liver to deposit the glucose-stores in the blood and to convert proteins into glucose. During these events, the subject feels very bad, he might be sweating, his mental abilities drop to 20%, he trembles alot, he might faint. After some time (minutes), the blood sugar levels are normal again. The subject has inherited some problems from the flush of hormones. These hormones are adrenalin, epinephrine, glucagon and some more.. We all know what adrenalin can do to us: Flight or Fight syndrome. Epinephrine causes major stress and irritation. The problem is that these hormones stay in the blood for up to an entire week. During that week, the subject is not very nice to be with: He gets irritated very easily.

Trying to decide if I'd want to bother going to an endocrinologist about this, as I'm sure my GP will want to send me. Since I don't do anything like drink colas, I don't think this will happen to me. I don't want to take a GTT for anything, I am still cranky and weird from this happening to me last week, and having to hunker down with low glycemic foods very often during the day. Not loving this part...

Yeah, Tiffany, it's been fun! Well, relatively speaking...

I'll find out my biopsy results tomorrow and post them, and that will be the end of this chapter!

Stephanie

[theglutengirl]

I saw my GI today. He was nice and listened pretty well to my ongoing symptoms that have not cleared up from eliminating gluten and some other foods, basically a lot of IBS symptoms. He said yes, sounds like IBS (ha, really, can't they come up with anything else???) but basically that it is a motility issue. Did a little exam and found some blood in my stool, which reinforced what has been happening to me for him.

Anyway, said it could be that I'm just going to have this for the rest of my life but we should check to see if I have anything going on in there, so colonoscopy followed by an endoscopy in the same procedure. We joked about the fact the two scopes don't meet in the middle...

So next Thursday, the 6th is the day.

I'll let you know <she types, as she doubles over from another stomach cramp...>

Stephanie

I had both done together write before i turned 15, (a few months ago) I woke up remembering absolutely nothing. I am gluten free and still have ideopathic bleeding with no symptoms of hemmorroids so I am interested in seeing what your result is. Best of luck

[theglutengirl]

keep us updated on how you are